Local woman’s ‘hard work pays off’ through desserts and determination

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Since September of 2024, when she launched her treat-making business, Rose Angulo has overcome homelessness, moved into her first-ever apartment, taken classes at Allan Hancock College, and secured a job at a local preschool, all while selling homemade desserts and taking care of her young son. 

“I’m an example of hard work pays off,” Angulo said, reflecting on what it took to establish a business and overcome the hurdles she’s faced over the last year.  

Angulo had already tapped into her entrepreneurial spirit before creating her treat-making business by founding a bottle bedazzling company. However, after attending her first vendor pop-up event, she quickly realized that if she wanted to make money off a side hustle, then she’d have to do something with food. 

“I never pursued doing treats because I just felt like everyone does that, but I just had faith in myself,” she explained. “I was like, ‘OK, if I’m going to do treats, let me do something different then.’”

She started her business, Rositas Manzanitas, from her mother’s kitchen by making “apple salads,” which consist of apple slices, cheesecake filling, and a variety of toppings. One of her first best sellers was the Big Back Junior made with Granny Smith apples, cheesecake filling, Snickers, Twix, caramel drizzle, chocolate drizzle, and nut topping. 

“One thing I struggled with a little bit in the beginning is that you expect certain people to be happy for you, but not everybody’s happy for you, even if it’s the people that you want that recognition from,” Angulo said. “You just got to keep going.”

Shortly after launching, she took a trip with her wife to Anaheim, where she learned more about an increasingly trendy dessert on social media called Dubai chocolate. The specialty chocolate, made with pistachio filling and shredded phyllo, went viral on TikTok and Instagram as people posted about its use in different desserts. 

“I wanted to make sure that if I was selling it, I wanted to be as authentic as I could be,” Angulo said. “So I went to an Islamic bakery, and I actually talked to the owner and bought a bar off of him. He pretty much gave me the recipe and gave me his blessing in a way, so I came home and did my research. I started selling the chocolate, and boom, it took off.”

Angulo said that she knew she had made the right decision starting her treat business as soon as she posted about the Dubai chocolate she had made. She explained that within minutes of posting, she was “swarmed” with orders.

“It really was the right move because that’s honestly what blessed my business, is making Dubai chocolate,” she said. 

When she moved into an emergency homeless shelter, she had to request an extension on the shelter’s curfew so that she could continue maintaining her business out of her mother’s kitchen. Even though she managed to keep making and selling treats, she emphasized that living in the shelter was not easy. 

“Being in the shelter was a very humbling experience,” she said. “It makes you think a lot differently about a lot of things. I feel like, yeah, I was homeless, but I didn’t look homeless. I feel like a lot of people judge homeless people. Honestly, unless I tell people, you would never know I was in a shelter.”

She noted that staying in the shelter felt like being in some sort of boot camp, and from the experience, she learned time management and discipline skills that she continues to use today to balance her new job at a preschool, community college classes, her side business, and taking care of her son. 

“It’s a lot of self-discipline,” she said. “You really got to be disciplined to want to run a business, be a mom, and go to work. It’s not for the weak.” 

In early March, she moved out of the shelter and into her first apartment, where she now has her own kitchen to make apple salads, Dubai chocolate, cupcakes, and chocolate-covered strawberries. She expressed gratitude for the people who have supported her business along the way and added that she’s proud of herself for doing what she needed to do to get to where she is. 

“[People at the shelter] would always ask me, ‘How do you have time? How do you do it?’ And I’m just like, ‘It’s a mindset,’” she said. “I’m also a mother. My son needs certain things. I do what I have to do. Yes, I love it, and I’m glad I’m doing something on the side that I love, but we get burnt out too. 

“So, it’s just having that mindset to keep going through with it and just putting in the hard work.”

Angulo said that she hopes to set a good example for her younger sisters and for her son, adding that she wants them to know that they can accomplish whatever they aspire to do. 

“You can really make this life whatever you desire,” she said, “as long as you have faith, and you do the work, and you don’t give up.”

Reach Staff Writer Emma Montalbano at emontalbano@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in Apr 17-27, 2025.